Chapter 10
Notes from the road pt 10
We were stopped on the outskirts of a pretty town with the disconcerting name of Desolation. To us four sun-blasted veterans of the desert this tiny village was anything but desolate, being just on the side of a huge lake and surrounded by forest on the bank. The trees on the shore line provided the perfect shade for a small lunch and gave the perfect view of calm waters reflecting an azure sky broken only by Dogs insistence of diving into the water shattering its mirror-like consistency.
Towering above this tranquil scene was the mountain we had recently descended, standing proud above all the others in his range. With the solid granite on one side and the lake on the other I should have felt trapped, caught being a rock and a wet place but instead I felt secure, safe almost.
We were walking into the reception of a expansive hotel called The Pine Lodge, although the imported polished cars, its immaculate lawns and the five stars discreetly placed on its signboard put paid to its humble sounding name.
The guests were mainly rich businessmen on retreat from the north in search of some game fishing and their spouses who either shared or tolerated their husbands passion for Poisson. A few of these archetype couples were having coffee in the morning room off of the foyer when we walked in. You could feel their stares boring into and through you for daring to interrupt their carefully ordered little universe.
To be fair to them we did made a pretty incongruous collection walking through their staid world of bronzed oak and velvet drapes, of room service and bellboys that always smile no matter how little you tip them, being a chirpy mongrel dog, the striking yet dressed-down Madison, the massive check shirted Bran and me.
The clerk surveyed us with a calculating stare starting from toe to head and I'm sure his gaze didn't even get above ankle height before he knew there would be no gratuity for him tonight.
He was wearing a grey pinstripe suit with a tie that alone cost more than Bran's truck and was snotty in that way that only Englishmen working abroad can manage. A snivelling superior air that even though they're waiting on you makes you feel they're doing it under sufferance.
The road dust from several days travel settled around us on the immaculate beige and crimson carpet as he leant across the two foot of walnut and said,
"Can I help you sir?" not bothering to hide his desire to be as little use as possible.
"We'd like a room please." I replied trying not to let his airs downsize me.
His gaze hardly flickered.
"For all of you together sir?"
Madison stifled a laugh under a cough and I cursed myself silently.
"No just a twin and a single will be fine thank you."
"I'm afraid sir the only rooms we have available might be a little out of sirs price range. The Sleep-E-Z motel is just across town, might I suggest you seek accommodation there?"
He looked down on Dog who had remained very calm on the end of his leash but had now obviously caught a scent and was trying, unsuccessfully to drag Madison towards a potted fern in the corner of the elegantly appointed room.
"We've already been there," I said trying to inject a moment of calm back into the situation" they've got no vacancies and they told us you might have a room here."
"We do have rooms sir but I think they might be unsuitable for your needs."
"Unsuitable?"
"Totally."
"For you or for us?" Chimed in Madison colouring rapidly, I was only an arched eyebrow behind her in the race to loose our patience.
"The only rooms we have left mam are one single and the bridal suite which on its own is more expensive than hiring every room in the Sleep-e-z motel for a week. So you see why I might think this particular venture might be out of your financial reach. Now might I suggest you take your little menagerie out of my hotel before you disturb the actual paying guests anymore than you unruly presence here already has."
He arched his eyebrow.
"Now look," I was about to say. "Yes we may look like drifters, yes we may not be up to the steam pressed standards of your usual clients and yes our dog may be just about to take a leak against your no doubt hugely rare and expensive fern but there no need to treat us as if we're smeared in our own faeces. Surely there are standards and rituals of human behaviour that even you talking from your clearly elevated position over us can use to not make us feel like blood sucking ticks on the ass of civilisation."
Well, that's what I was about to say, but I was interrupted by Bran gently but firmly moving me out of the way with a ham like hand to loom over both the counter and the clerk.
We can become so used to see something special or unusual that it takes a special set of circumstances for us to see it clearly, as it actually is, again.
Bran pulling himself up to his full height and wading forward to the counter, made me see him how others must view him everyday. The pure physical hulking brutality of the man, hidden in our day to day dealings was as clear to me then as one of those optical illusions where you see two faces looking at each other and then it becomes an hourglass.
That change had just overtaken Bran and the clerk could feel it too. All his forced manners good graces and expensive suit couldn't protect him now. Even the solid wooden bastion of the counter top felt as flimsy as paper mache and offered about as much protection.
Bran glowered down on the thin head of this bug, this insect that dared to insult and defy him. I braced myself for the violence and a swift exit, trying to remember if we had left any finger prints on our way in to tie us to this forthcoming crime.
"Do you," Bran hand reached inside his jacket followed by the clerks gaze who gave an involuntary yelp," Take American Express?"
At that moment I don't know who was more surprised, Madison, myself or the clerk whose programming obviously took several seconds to come back on at the sight of Bran's platinum card. As normality returned Bran seemed to shrink almost allowing the clerk to fluff himself up again.
"Of course sir. That will do very nicely."
"I think you'll find my credit is excellent"
"I'm sure it is sir. Thank you."
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Together we walked over to the elevator too surprised to speak. Madison looked at me as if to say, "Did you know about this?" I shook my head indicating Bran's apparent affluence had been a secret from me too. .
He stood in front of us, his broad back giving nothing away and said.
"There are sometimes, when proving a point is the right thing to do, however expensive it may then turn out to be. Also," he added " I was sleeping in a bed tonight whatever the cost."
The lift trundled upwards towards the bridal suite.
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